sai
by Sapphire X Dreams
Summary: The day where Hikaru was to tell Akira about everything has come. But Hikaru didn't mean for that day to turn out so crazy. Only Akira was supposed to hear! But now the whole Go world is after him, and it's up to Hikaru to bring Sai back.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Hikaru and Akira were at the endgame of their game. It was the first time where they hadn't interrupted their own game and broke out into an argument. Hikaru was thankful for that. It was the first time that the two hadn't broke out into a shouting match, and Akira hadn't criticized his moves. That must mean that Hikaru had gotten better. At least, that's what Hikaru thought. Akira on the other hand, had other things on his mind. He remembered when Hikaru had that amazing strength when they first met. That strength had never returned after that. And then he remembered what Hikaru had said once. About how he was going to tell him everything someday. Well, was that day today? He had been waiting for so long, and he really wanted to know.

Akira opened his mouth to say something then closed it. He hesitated. Should he blurt it out? Should he murmur it? Or was it something private so should he whisper? Akira hesitated and looked at Hikaru's face. He had a small smile on his face. He was in a good mood, Akira figured it would be okay.

"You said you were going to tell me about everything someday, can you tell me now?!" Akira asked in one breath. When he opened his eyes, he noticed Hikaru was still smiling the same as before as he placed a stone down. He looked as if he hadn't heard him. But then, Hikaru looked up and gave Akira a puzzled look. "Huh?" He said.

"You said you were going to tell me everything someday. Can you tell me now?" Akira asked again. Hikaru still gave Akira the same look. "You're making no sense." He said. Akira glared at Hikaru and then began cleaning up the stones even when the game was so close to being finished. "Forget it." Akira said and he hurried up to leave. "Wait, Touya!" Hikaru chased after him. "I'm sorry, but I don't get what you're saying." They were already out of the Go salon and on the sidewalk in front of it.

"I'm sorry, but I just don't get it. And I didn't want to mess up the game. Just explain it a little more." Hikaru pleaded. Akira by then, had had his arms crossed. "Please." Hikaru begged. "What were we wearing?" Hikaru asked. "Nevermind, Shindou." Akira said sternly. But Hikaru kept pressuring him. "I was wearing a purple sweater and you were wearing yellow. You said maybe I'll tell you everything someday. I asked you to tell me then, but you said someday is someday in the future (as Akira was telling him all this, Hikaru was becoming wide-eyed and open-mouthed) and called me a moron." Akira said then looked at Hikaru's surprised look.

"Now you remember." Akira pointed out looking at Hikaru's face. "So can you tell me now?" Akira asked feeling a little anxious. "No!" Hikaru said. "Why?" "Because I haven't had that much time to recover!"

"What?"

"He left me only a year ago!" Hikaru yelled and then covered his mouth.

Akira was surprised. "He left you???" He asked a disturbed look on his face. (Note: Akira doesn't know who Sai is and that he left Hikaru so when Hikaru said 'He left me only a year ago!' Akira is thinking that Hikaru was going out with some guy. But of course Hikaru wasn't) Hikaru looked at Akira.

"Not like that!" He snapped and Akira felt relieved. Then Hikaru turned around and ran back inside the Go salon. Akira grabbed his arm. "Just tell me!" He asked. "No!" Hikaru said trying to pull away. "You said you'd tell me someday, were you lying about that?!" Akira yelled making Hikaru feel a little guilty and then hurt. He looked at Akira's face.

"Alright, I'll tell you." Hikaru finally said after a long moment of silence. Hikaru sat down, and Akira sat across from him. "When I was twelve, I went to my grandpa's house to look for something to sell to make money. My friend Akari was with me. I saw a Go board and wanted to sell it. But it had a blood stain on it, so I decided to wipe it off. I tried but it wouldn't come off. Akari didn't see it though. And just then, I was hearing a voice. And a bunch of light came from the board and then I fell unconscious after seeing something coming out of the board." Hikaru explained. Akira listened closely and then put on a grim face. "Light doesn't come from Go boards. And why would a blood stain be on it?"

"It was the blood from Hon'inbo Shuusaku!" Hikaru yelled and Akira got a skeptical face on. "Stop making things up." Akira said smugly. "I'm not!" Hikaru protested. "So... what happened?" Akira asked with a bored look on.

"I went to school the next day, and I found out that a ghost was in my head. He had at first possessed Hon'inbo Shuusaku and had played all his games. But Shuusaku died and then he came inside me." Hikaru said.

"Yeah right, like your grandpa would have Shuusaku's Go board in his house." Akira rolled his eyes.

"Will you just listen?!" Hikaru said. "I found out that the ghost was a Go player. He was begging me to play Go, because he couldn't touch or anything. And only I could see him. So we went to your Go salon and I played you. That was when I first met you. I played you... well actually the ghost played you. Nobody would ever be able to play that well on their first game." Hikaru said.

"So... what was this ghost's name?" Akira asked actually beginning to believe Hikaru's ridiculous story.

"Fujiwara... no Sai." Hikaru replied.

"We played a lot of games together and I decided that Sai shouldn't play in public, or I'd get a lot of publicity. So we decided to use the Internet. And our name was.... sai." Hikaru admitted. Akira was shocked. "That... that was him?!" Akira stood up. Hikaru nodded solemnly. Ogata walked into the Go salon and caught sight of Akira.

"Mr. Ogata." Miss Ichikawa exclaimed. "I came to pick up Akira." He said. "He's over there with Hikaru." She said pointing and smiling. Ogata nodded and then headed over to the pair.

"And then Sai... he.... he disappeared?!" Akira exclaimed a little too loud. Hikaru nodded. Ogata was shocked. That name... the name from the Internet. Had he returned?! And Akira was even talking to Hikaru about it! Akira turned around and saw Ogata. "Master... Ogata..." His voice trailed off. "I was driving by and decided to pick you up." He said but his eyes the entire time were on Shindou. Akira nodded and then headed off with Ogata. "We'll talk later." Akira mouthed to Hikaru over his shoulder. And Hikaru nodded as he watch the two leave.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Ogata drove down the road silent at first. His brain was still going over and over about Shindou and then about Sai. The name on the Internet. The one who played Touya-Meijin and WON. Who was sai?

He thought back to when he had heard Hikaru talking about sai to the Meijin when he was in the hospital. And it had even crossed Ogata's mind, that sai was the reason for the Meijin's retirement.

Ogata glanced at Akira. Akira was a little squirmy in his seat, and it seemed he had daggers in his eyes.

Ogata could see his reflection in the closed window. Just then, it began to rain.

"Akira." Ogata finally broke the ice. "I'm going to swing by the Go Institute for a second. Is that okay with you?" Ogata said turning a corner. "Yes." Akira answered politely. "I would like to drop off a kifu for someone," the blonde man replied.

When the two reached the Institute, both Ogata and Akira got out of the car and ran to the door trying not to get wet, for neither had umbrellas. Once they were in the safety of an elevator, Ogata immediately began to speak. "Shindou.... you and Shindou were... talking." Ogata began and waited for Akira's answer. "Y-yes." Akira replied shifting from one foot to the other.

"You were talking about sai." Ogata said and Akira's head jerked towards him. "N-no we weren't." Akira hated lying, but Hikaru had told him to keep it a secret.

"Don't lie to me Touya." Ogata snapped. He usually didn't like raising his voice, but if he dug deep enough, he would have revealed all of the secrets of sai. "What did Shindou say?!" Just then, the elevator doors opened. Akira had no time to answer. Amano (the journalist) just so happened to be there.

"Hello Mr. Ogata, Akira." He nodded at each one. "What are you doing here?" He asked. "Just... dropping something off." Ogata said and stepped out of the elevator. "A kifu? Follow me." Amano said and began leading Ogata off.

Just then, Akira heard people talking. A group of teenagers were walking by. Akira saw one of them looked familiar. One of Shindou's friends. One of the pros that had passed with Shindou. What was his name...? Akira ran over to the group.

"Excuse me." Akira said stepping next to them. They all stopped to look at Akira. "Touya Akira? A girl spoke up. Nase.... that was her name wasn't it? Akira wandered.

He then looked at the familiar face of the pro he had seen. "Um.... are you one of Shindou Hikaru's friends?" He asked sheepishly. "Yes." The brown-haired pro replied. "May I talk to you for a second?" Akira asked, and the brown-haired pro followed him down the hallway.

"I'm sorry, what was your name again?" Akira asked. "Waya." The boy answered. "I was wondering if you knew Shindou's number." Akira asked. Waya raised one eyebrow in curiosity. "I don't know the number off of the top of my head..." Waya's voice trailed off. "But... you can check in the Institute's phone book." Waya said leading Akira to a room.

As soon as Akira walked in, he noticed Ogata wasn't that far away. Swallowing hard, Akira leaned over the table and began flipping the pages for the 'S' page. Once he found it, he ran his finger down the page. There it was: SHINDOU. Akira copied down the number and then thanked Waya just as Ogata was walking over. "We're leaving now." Ogata said and Akira went after him.


	3. Chapter 3

Wooo... I finally blew the dust off of this story for a while. I was hesitant about updating, because I don't know if anyone still would like to read it, but I saw that it still had many alerts, for which I was proud of. I might re-write the entire 'fic. Heck, I might re-write all of my Hikaru no Go fics (even the ones not uploaded on FF . net)...

**Chapter 3**

The rain had eased up a little when Ogata was driving Akira home. Ogata, although he didn't want to, had dropped the sai business. But he had noticed the paper in Akira's hand. He had gotten glimpses of the numbers and he had memorized most of the sequence. All he needed was just needed the last four digits.

He looked at Touya, hoping he would try to shuffle around. And he had tried various things in making Touya shift around. Those 'various things' included the "hey-look-at-that!" trick, which obviously didn't work and made Ogata seem (and feel) like an idiot.

As they were driving, Akira was fully aware that Ogata was trying to see the number, and tried his best to hide it. He had worn slightly dressy pants, so there were no pockets he could shove the paper into. He hoped Ogata hadn't seen it.

Just then, Ogata stopped at Akira's house.

"Thank you for the ride," Akira said politely, quickly, bowing his head and hiding the number behind his back as he got out. Unfortunately, Ogata's eyes were quick, and he had seen the last four digits that he needed. Also unfortunately, Akira didn't know that.

He smiled at Ogata, then turned around and zipped into the house, trying not to be too conspicuous.

Ogata was smiling to himself and practically sped down the street in a frantic attempt to get home as soon as possible. Scratch that, to get to his _phone_ as soon as possible. But he didn't know what the number was for and who it lead to. He'd just have to try it out.

Akira, on the other hand, didn't have the same luck Ogata did at that time. He was called for dinner by his mother, so he'd have to call Shindou later.

When Ogata opened the door to his apartment, he was immensely excited, although he didn't look it. Seiji Ogata was not one to jump up and down and squeal about a mere phone number. He had his same calm and serious look on. He decided to make some tea and get a cigarette. That was supposed to take only about 15 minutes, but Ogata, for some reason, had some trouble lighting his cigarette. Was he too excited?

He had knocked over the tea kettle and had to attempt to light the cigarette four times. His hands were shaky... Was he worried about _forgetting_ the number? Never! Go-players had some of the sharpest memories there was, whether they were old or young. They had to memorize entire games, right?

When he was finally settled, he picked up his phone and dialed the number he (thankfully) remembered. He typed them carefully, trying not to make any mistakes. If he was to make a mistake, he'd probably throw the phone out the window.

If it wasn't an important number, he would just say "wrong number" and hang up. As the phone was ringing, Ogata tapped his foot and waited. Beats of sweat fell down his face.

_Click!_ The phone was picked up. Ogata waited to hear whose voice it was... Whose voice was on the other end?

* * *

Akira stood up from the table and ran into the room in his house with the phone. He snatched up the phone and dialed in the number. He needed to hear the rest of Hikaru's story...

"Come on come on..." He tapping his foot impatiently.

* * *

"Hello, Shindou Residence," the voice answered.

Ogata was shocked. What an incredible stroke of luck! He had gotten the number of the house of the person behind all the mysteries of sai.

"May I speak to Shindou Hikaru?" he asked.

"Of course," the womanly voice answered (_probably the boy's mom..._ Ogata thought knowingly). In about forty-five seconds, someone else answered.

"Hello?" the voice said uncertainly.

"Shindou..."

Hikaru recognized the voice immediately. He began shifting from one foot to the other.

"Shindou, tell me... who is sai?!"


End file.
